UKZN HIV Pathogenesis Programme (HPP) student Kegakilwe Catherine Koofhethile joined Professor Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, who won a Nobel prize for discovering HIV, for an interview on a German TV show.
Koofhethile was nominated by her sponsor, the Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World, as one of the top 600 scientists out of about 4000 applications to attend the 64th Lindau Nobel Laureate (Medicine and Physiology) meeting in Germany.
While there she had a chance to mingle with 37 Nobel laureate prize winner, but was surprised when she was asked to join Barré-Sinoussi on an interview that was aired on a German TV Science programme NANO, focusing on the meeting and innovations in Science.
"I remember her words that it’s very difficult for a woman to make it in a science career, having to juggle family responsibilities and academic commitments, however her advice to me was to always work hard and persevere," Koofhethile said.
Koofhethile hails from Botswana, and is currently pursuing a PhD in virology at UKZN.
Her PhD study is titled Investigation of viral control and lack of control in chronic HIV-1 subtype C infection in individuals with protective HLA alleles, and is being performed under HPP director Professor Thumbi Ndung’u and Dr Christina Thobakgale, one of South Africa's top women in science.
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